5 comments:

"European elections in the UK." I know what you mean (you're using Europe to mean the EU), but the phrase sounds tautological. Any election in the UK - anything that happens in that country - is European.

I wonder if the American radio interviewer Terry Gross holds the record for the highest number of publicly recorded biscuit conditionals. Several times a show, she comes back from a brief interruption with the catchphrase "if you're just joining me, my guest tonight is - ." Of course, the identity of the guest doesn't really depend on when I turned on my radio.

Of course you are right that everything that is in the UK is also in Europe. Still, it's pretty clear that we can use the phrase 'European elections' to pick out elections for EU institutions. In another context it might have been intended (and understood) as meaning 'elections that take place in Europe' or 'elections carried out in a European style' (whether they take place in Europe or not) or ...